Machine for tapping blast-furnaces.



B. J. MULLEN.

MACHINE FOR TAPPING B LAST FURNACES.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 1B. 1915 RENEWED JUNE 6. 1918.

5 SHEETSSHEET I.

FIE-1-1..

WITNESSES INVENTOR B.L MULLEN,

MACHINE FOR TAPPING BLAST FURNACES.

APPUCAHON FHED AU&I8,19l& RENEWEDJUNE6.19I&

Patented Aug. 20, 1918.

5 $HEETSSHEET 2.

FIE-3.2-

WITNESSES INVENTOR B. J. MULLEN.

MACHINE FOR TAPPING BLAST FURNACES.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 18, m5. RENEWED JUNE 6.1918.

Pat nted Aug. 20, 1918.

S H E ET 3- 5 SHEETS- INVENTOR WITNESSES B. J. IVIULLEN.

MACHINE FOR TAPPING BLAST FURNACES.

APPLlCATlON FILED AUG. 18. 1915.

RENEWED JUNE 6.1918.

5 SHEETSSHEET 4.

Patented Aug. 20, 1918.

I WITNESSES Q a mvzm'on but/[w M66147 B. J. MULLEN.'

MACHINE FOR TAPPING BLAST FURNACES. APPLICATION FILED AUG.I8, l9l5- RENEWED JUNE 6.1918.

1 76,258 0 Patented Aug. 20, 1918.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 5.

FISH- WITNESSES mum-OR BENJ'LMIN J. MULLER, 0F LEE'IONIA, OHIO.

MACHINE FOR TAPPING BLAST-FURNACES.

Specification or Letters remit.

Patented Aug. 20, 1918.

Application filed August 18, 1915, SerialNo. 46,107. Renewed June 6, 1918. Serial No. 288,604.

To all whom it may concern:

4 Be it known that I, BENJAMIN J. MULLEN, residing at Leetonia, in the county of Columbia and State'of Ohio, a citizen of the United States, have invented. or discovered certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Tapping Blast-Furnaces, of which improvements the following is a specification.

My invention relates to machines for tapping the iron notches of blast furnaces. In my application, Serial No. 4,918, filed J anuary 28, 1915, I have shown and described a machine for the same purpose, and have therein explained in detail some of the difficulties encountered in opening notches. The same operating considerations apply to the machine of my present application.

It is the object of my present invention to improve the details of construction of the machine shown in my aforesaid application, and to provide a machine which may to a greater extent than possible with the earlier machine, be adequately operated and controlled at a safe distance from a furnace.

In the accompanying sheets of drawings, which form part of myspecifications, I have illustrated the preferred embodiment of my present invention. Figure 1 is a side elevation of the machine in operative position beside a blast furnace, a portion of the furnace being shown in section; Fig. 2 a side elevation, to enlarged scale, of the machine of Fig. 1, the protecting casing being removed from the side; Fig. 3 a rear end view of the machine; Fig. 4 a top plan view thereof, Fig. 5 a plan view, to enlarged scale, of the central portion of the machine; Fig. 6 a sectional view taken on the broken line VI VI, Fig. 5, but showing the machine as being provided with different tools than indicated in Fig. 5; and Fig. 7 a sectional view, to enlarged scale, the plane of view being indicated by the lines VII VII of Figs. 1 and 6. v 1

The operating parts of my present tapping machine are borne by a suitable elongate frame 1, which, except for -yokes'2, 3 and 4:, is preferably an integral casting. The sides ofthe frame are provided with oppositely disposed guides 5, on which there is mounted for longitudinal movement, a fluid pressure cylinder 6, provided with laterally extending arms 7 for engaging such guides.

iron

The complete description of the mechanism for moving the cylinder upon the guides Wlll be explained hereinafter. It is sufficient'for the fpresent to state that, as shown herein, I pre rably provide for this, purpose a single feed screw 8 rotatably mounted in the center of the frame '1 and driven, through suitable -connections, by means of a motor 9. The cylinder is provided with a downwardly extending arm 10 which engages the screw. 0

The first feature of my invention which I will describe in detail concerns the arrangement of conduits for supplying motive fluid to the cylinder 6. The motive fluid, prefer-.-

ably compressed air, may be led to the machine through a flexible pipe 11 (Fig. 1) adapted to be readily'connectedat the rear of the machine to a rigid conduit 12 attached' to the rear yoke 4. The conduit 12,-

as seen particularly in Fig. 4, extends forwardly to the front end of the machine, being connected in turn to the yokes 3 and 2, and thence rearwardly and parallel with the line of advance of the cylinder 6, to the yoke 3. Telescoping with the conduit 12 is a second conduit 13, connected to the valve .chest 14 of the cylinder, and adapted to move with the cylinder. By such an arrangement, the motive fluid may becarried to the cylinder without the prejudicial circumstances of a conduit moving outside of the machine, and without employing flexible conduits adjacent to the movable machine parts.

The cylinder is provided with a piston 15 connected to a piston rod 16, which in turn is attached by means of a pin 17 to a piston rod nut 18. This nut is bolted to a crosshead '19, which is provided centrally with a rotatable spindle 20, and which slidably en 1 gages the guides 5. The spindle is provided with ports 38 and 38*, so that air, taken from the chest 14 through the flexible conduit 39 (Fig. 4:), may flow through the spindle to the drill rod presently to be de-' scribed. As seen particularly in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, the spindle 20 has attached to it a ratchet wheel 21, and adjacent to such wheel there is rotatably mounted on the spindle a disk 22 having a projecting arm 23 provided with a pawl 24 adapted to engage the teeth of the ratchet to turn the spindle. The disk 22 is further provided with a second arm 25, which moves in an inclined g ide 26, con- 25 I head 19 and provided at its end with a renected at one end to the head of the cylinder 6, and supported at its front end by a stirrup 27, which slidably engages the guides 5. Thus, as the cross-head is caused to reciprocate, the spindle is rotated by these pawl and ratchet connections.

To the front end of the cylinder there is attached a tool-holding chuck which may be of any suitable form. As shown herein, such chuck comprises a body portion 28, a U- bolt 29, a key and a wedge 31. In Fig. 5 the chuck holds a drill rod 32, and in Fig. 6 a hammering-head 33. It will be understood that to remove a tool it is only necessary to hammer rearwardly the wedge 31, and that, a new or different tool being'substituted, it may be firmly clamped in the chuck by striking the forward end of the wedge.

In the normal operation of tapping a notch, the usual practice is first to employ a I drill rod 32, and thereafter to use a tapping i tor 9.

bar 34 (Fig. 6) rovided with a head 35. Both of these too s are supported by means of a U-shaped bar 36 attached to the crossceiving slot 37. The bar 36, in addition to serving as a support for either a drill or tapping bar, also serves as a withdrawing bar for hammering rearwardly the head 35 of the tapping .bar after iron has been reached in the notch, or when for other reasons it becomes necessary to withdraw such bar. By this construction and .arrangement of parts it' will be seen that the tools may be quickly substituted one for the other, and that, when using a tapping bar 34, the reciprocation of the piston may be rendered effective either to drive the bar forwardly into the notch or rear'wardly out of the notch the head 35 being struck, respectively, either by the hammer-head 33 or the withdrawing bar 36. V

As already stated, the cylinder 6 is caused tomove longitudinally of the frame 1 by means of the feed screw 8, driven by a mo- Preferably I provide two driving connections between said motor and screw so that the cylinder may be moved at two speeds, one more rapid than the other. For this purpose the screw-shaft 8 is provided with a bevel pinion 40, meshing with a sec- 0nd pinion 41, which is attached to a stub .shaft 42 supported by suitable bearings 43 forming part of the frame 1. To the opposlte ends of the shaft 42 there are attached the driven elements of yielding clutches 44 and 45, preferably magnetic clutches. Mo-

' tion is imparted to the driving element of the clutch 44 by means of pinion 46 attached to'the armature shaft of the motor 9, pinion 47 and shaft 48, to which the pinion 47 and the driving member of the clutch 44 are attached. The driving member of the clutch 45 is attached to a shaft 49 which i grease speed and according to the requirements of service. Furthermore, the piston may be caused to reciprocate while the cylinder is being thus fed. 1

Means are also provided for turning the feed screw 8 by hand. For this purpose the front end of the screw is provided with a bevel pinion 55, which meshes with a second pinion 56 secured to a shaft 57, rotatably mounted in the frame 1 and provided with a crank 58..

It will be understood that, in the operation of the machine, the feeding speed of the cylinder will be regulated according to the length of the piston stroke. If the drilling or the driving of a tapping bar is stoutly resisted,

the length of the piston stroke will be shortened automatically, provided of course that the feed of the cylinder is more rapid than the driving power of the piston. On the other hand, if theresistance is small and the feed of the cylinder is at a less speed than the driving power of the piston, the stroke of the piston will be long. That there may be a proper regulation of the feeding of the cylinder with relation to the length of the piston stroke, and furthermore, that such regulation may be controlled at a safe distance from the furnace (this being important in cases of extremity), I rovide an indicator mechanism for showing the length of each piston stroke. 1 Such mechanism preferably consists of a dial 60 secured to a bar 61 attached to the arms 7 of the cylinder 6, and a hand 62 movable over the face of such dial. The hand or pointer is attached to a rocking segmental gear, which gear is also attached to the bar 61. This gear meshes with a second segmental gear64, secured to the rock shaft or valve rod 65,010- eratively connected to the crosshead by means of a lever 66 and link 67. Thus the range of oscillation or swinging of the hand 62 over the face of the dial 60 will be a clear indication of the length of the piston stroke; and, by observing such movement of the hand, the speed of feeding the cylinder may be properly regulated as already explained. With respect to this it will be understood that the speed of reciprocation of the engine will be so controlled that the range of movement of the hand will be is provided with a protecting hood 68. As seen in Fig. 3, the dial and hand are placed outside of the hood, which is suitably constructed for this purpose. To indicate, during the progress of a tapping operation, the extent of the movement of the cylinder 6, a gage 69 is attached to the frame and a pointer 70 to the cylinder, as shown in Figs. 2 and 4.

In operation, the rear portion of the machine may, as indicated in Figs. 1 and 7, be

suspended from a suitable crane 71, a hanger 72 being attached to the frame 1 for this purpose, and the front being supported by legs 73 detachably connected to the frame and provided with a plurality of connectmg holes 7 4 so that the elevation of the machine may be varied. To the end that the machine may be properly anchored against displacement due to the impact of operation, means are provided for pivotally connecting the legs 73 to the trough 75 leading from the tapping hole 76 of the furnace 77. Preferably the trough is provided with a palr of lugs 78, havin at their upper ends trunnion bearin s or pins 79 which are secured to and pro]ect laterally from the legs 73.

, The sides of the bearings are provided with cured to the ends of rod 82, and forming the inclined dove-tail key ways 80 adapted to receive correspondingly shaped blocks 81, se-

upper halves of the trunnion bearings for the pins 79. As will be seen, these rods may be readily manipulated at a distance from the furnace, both for efl'ecting or breaking the connection of the legs to the trough. The front of the machine being thus pivotally supported, the rear end may be adjusted to various levels by varying the effective length of the rod 83, as by turning the nut 84.

I claim:

1. In a machine for tapping blast furnaces, the combination of an elongate frame, a fluid pressure cylinder mounted for longitudinal movementupon the rear portion of said frame and provided with areciprocatory piston means for moving said cylinder forwardly and rearwardly. upon the frame, a motive fluid supply conduit secured to the frame and exending from the rear to the front thereof and thence rearwardly parallel to the line of advance of the cylinder, and a second conduit secured to said cylinder and telescoping with said rearwardly extending portion of the first named conduit.

2. In a machine for tapping blast furnaces, the combination of anelongate frame provided with a pair of oppositely disposed guides for a motive fluid cylinder, and further provided with an intermediate andend yokes, a fluid pressure cylinder slidably said cylinder forwardly and rearwardly upon said guides, a motive fluid supply conduit fixedly secured to the upper pdrtions of said yoke and extending from the rear. end. yoke to the forward end yoke and thence rearwardly to the intermediate yoke, and a second conduit secured to said cylinder and telescopin with said rearwardly extending portion 0 the first named conduit. 7

3. In a machine for tapping blast furnaces, the combination of a frame, a fluid pressure cylinder mounted for longitudinal movement upon said frame and provided witha reciprocatory piston, a cross-head secured to said piston, a tool-holding chuck attached to said cross-head, and a combined drawing bar and tool support secured to the cross-head.

4:. In a machine for tapping blast furnaces, the combination of a frame, a fluid pressure cylinder mounted. for longitudinal movement upon said frame and provided with a reciprocatory piston, a cross-head secured to said piston, a tool holding chuck rotatably attached to said cross-head, means cooordinated with the reciprocation of the piston for rotating the chuck, and a U-shaped drawing bar and tool support attached to the cross-head forwardly thereof.

5. In a machine for tapping blast furnaces, the combination of a frame, a fluid pressure cylinder mounted for longitudinal movement upon said frame and provided with a reciprocatory piston, means for moving said cylinder, and mechanism for indicatin the length of the piston .rod strokes.

6. n a machine for tapping blast furnaces, the combination of a frame, a fluid pressure cylinder mounted for longitudinal with a reciprocatory piston, an indicator for showing the length of the piston stroke attached to and movable with said cylinder, and means controlled independently of the reciprocation of the piston for moving said cylinder.

7. In a machine for tapping blast furnaces,'the combination of a frame, afluid pressure cylinder mounted for longitudinal movement upon said frame and provided with a reciprocatory piston, a dial and hand and projecting for indicating the stroke of the piston at- .tached to and movable with said cylinder,

operative connection between said piston and hand for moving the latter in coordination with the former, and means controlled independently of the reciprocation of the piston for moving said cylinder longitudinally of said frame.

8.- In a machine for tapping blast furnaces, the combination of a frame, a fluid pressure cylinder mounted for longitudinal movement upon said frame and provided with a reciprocatory piston, a feed, screw 105 movement upon said frame and provided rotatably mounted in said frame and operatively engaging said cylinder, a motor, and drivin connections including a yielding clutchietween said motor and screw.

9. In a machine for tapping blast furnaces, the combination of a frame, a fluid pressure cylinder mounted for longitudinal movement upon said frame and provided with a reciprocatory piston, a feed screw rotatably mounted in said frame and operatively engaging said cylinder, a motor, and double driving connections between said motor and screw, each of said connections including a yielding clutch.

10. In a machine for tapping blast furnaces, the combination of a frame,v a fluid pressure cylinder mounted for longitudinal movement upon said frame and provided with a reciprocatory' piston, means for attaching a tapping tool to said piston, a feed screw rotatably mounted in said frame, and operatively engaging said cylinder, a motor, and double driving connections between said motor and screw, each of said connections including a magnetic clutch.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

y Witnesses:

PAUL N. CRrroHLow, FRANCIS J. 'IoMAssoN. 

